Birmingham Lit Fest Presents….

In this week’s episode, authors Sarah Moss and Megan Hunter join Writing West Midlands’ own Olivia Chapman to discuss their latest novels Summerwater and The Harpy. In this podcast, they discuss writing about relationships, creating unnerving fiction and the expectation placed on writers to make sense of the time we are living in.

The Birmingham Lit Fest Presents... podcast brings writers and readers together to discuss some of 2020’s best books. Each Thursday across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions
about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. Join us each week for exciting and inspiring conversations with new, and familiar, writers from the Midlands and beyond.

Take a look at the rest of this year's digital programme on our website: https://www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org/.
For more information on Writing West Midlands, visit https://writingwestmidlands.org/

Follow the festival on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @BhamLitFest

Credits

Curator: Shantel Edwards (Festival director)
Guest Curator: Kit de Waal
Production: 11C/ Birmingham Podcast Studios for Writing West Midlands

TRANSCRIPT

BLF Podcast Transcription, Episode 9: Sarah Moss and Megan Hunter  

Kit de Waal 

Welcome to the Birmingham Lit Fest Presents…podcast series. I’m Kit de Waal and I’ve worked with the  Festival Director, Shantel Edwards, as Guest Curator of this year’s podcast series. Each Thursday across the  next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions about  writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. In this week’s episode, authors Sarah Moss and Megan Hunter  join Writing West Midlands’ own Olivia Chapman to discuss their latest novels Summerwater and The  Harpy. Both novels offer a sharply observed and unsettling insight into their character’s intimate  relationships, as well as their interactions with strangers. In this podcast, they discuss writing about  relationships, creating unnerving fiction and the expectation placed on writers to make sense of the time  we are living in. 

Aston University 

This episode of the Birmingham Lit Fest Presents… podcast is brought to you in partnership with Aston University. For information about studying English at Aston, and for further information about the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, please see their website – www.aston.ac.uk - and their social media channels (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram) @AstonSSH. 

Olivia Chapman 

Hello, welcome to Birmingham Literature Festival. Thanks for joining us. I'm Olivia Chapman, I'm one of the  team at the festival. And I'm delighted to be talking to two novelists that I greatly admire today, Sarah Moss  and Megan Hunter. Sarah is going to be talking to us mainly about her seventh novel, which has just been  published this summer and is called Summerwater. It's got a cast of characters who are living, or not living, they're on holiday in a caravan park in Scotland, where it just doesn't stop raining. And it's focused on one  particular day. Megan is going to be talking to us mainly about her second book, The Harpy, which was due  to be out in June and has been delayed to the autumn because of the pandemic. The Harpy is one of the  most unsettling and kind of got-under-my-skin novels that I've read this year, focused around one family and  the relationship between husband and wife when she discovers an infidelity. So, I'm delighted for you to be  joining us, Sarah and Megan. Welcome.  

Sarah Moss 

Thank you.  

Megan Hunter

Thank you. 

Olivia Chapman 

I wanted to start by asking both of you – but I'm going to start with Megan – about writing relationships,  writing specifically [about] a marital relationship. You both do it exceptionally well, and I very much enjoy  your writing on that particular relationship. But Megan, I wanted to ask you about the dynamic between the  husband and wife in The Harpy. You can tell from the start that they're not happy and it kind of goes further.  How was it getting right under the skin of that relationship? 

Megan Hunter 

Well, it was difficult at first and it was a new thing for me, I'd written about relationships before in The End  We Start From but that was written in a very particular way; almost, you could say in the form of a prose  poem. There weren't very many conversations, you know. They weren't really scenes as such. And in this  novel, I really was writing scenes and conversations and actually quite intimate and difficult and conflict driven sort of arguments. So that felt like a very new thing for me. But I, once I sort of got immersed in it,  and I was used to it in the novel – I mean 'enjoyed' isn't really quite the right word – but I certainly became  sort of used to it, became familiar with it and kind of was very engaged by it. But it was hard. I mean, over  the course of however long you write a novel to write about such dark and difficult things for, you know,  years on end, when, you know, you're not necessarily feeling that way yourself. That's quite difficult to keep  re-entering that dark space. 

Olivia Chapman 

And Sarah you usually – 'cos this is your seventh novel, and I've read I think all of them – but you do tend to  focus on one family or relatively few characters. Summerwater is unusual in that you have, I think, five or six  different families or different cabins that you're looking at. So, they all have slightly different dynamics, but  

you get to know each character and specifically the relationships between them very, very well. How was  that for you to be kind of so deep with so many characters and their very intimate relationships?  

Sarah Moss 

It felt like a very playful book to write. I enjoyed it and I did all of it, I mean, the metaphors I come up with  are to do with dancing, which I think is partly because of the way the narrative passes from one character to  another. Although the themes are quite dark – though not as dark as The Harpy I think – it felt like quite a  kind of, quite a light-footed book to write.  

Olivia Chapman

Because you spent less time with each family?  

Sarah Moss 

I think because I knew that I was only with them for quite a short time. And that close third-person  narration I think is easier for that than first person because you can skip: you don't really have to introduce  each person because you just step into their proximity. 

Olivia Chapman 

So that's interesting. So it's more like you're taking a snapshot and then you kind of duck out again? 

Sarah Moss 

Yes. I mean, I'd hope something more mobile than a snapshot. But yes, absolutely. You pass through. You  kind of haunt each cabin for a little while, but then you move on. 

Olivia Chapman 

Oh, I like that imagery of haunting – the writer hauntin...

This week’s episode brings together journalists Natalie Fiennes and Lynn Enright to discuss their books, Behind Closed
Doors: Sex Education Transformed and Vagina: A Re-education. In conversation with Birmingham Literature Festival director Shantel Edwards, they talk about the politicisation of women’s bodies and sexual desire, the importance of sex education and the impact of the porn industry on our attitudes towards sex and our own bodies.

The Birmingham Lit Fest Presents... podcast brings writers and readers together to discuss some of 2020’s best books. Each Thursday across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions
about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. Join us each week for exciting and inspiring conversations with new, and familiar, writers from the Midlands and beyond.

Take a look at the rest of this year's digital programme on our website: https://www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org/.
For more information on Writing West Midlands, visit https://writingwestmidlands.org/

Follow the festival on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @BhamLitFest

Credits

Curator: Shantel Edwards (Festival director)
Guest Curator: Kit de Waal
Production: 11C/ Birmingham Podcast Studios for Writing West Midlands

TRANSCRIPT

BLF Podcast Transcription, Episode 8: Lynn Enright and Natalie Fiennes  

Kit de Waal 

Welcome to the Birmingham Lit Fest Presents…podcast series. I’m Kit de Waal and I’ve worked with the  Festival Director, Shantel Edwards, as Guest Curator of this year’s podcast series. Each Thursday across the  next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions about  writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. This week’s episode brings together journalists Natalie Fiennes  and Lynn Enright to discuss the politicisation of women’s bodies and sexual desire, the importance of sex  education and the impact of the porn industry on our attitudes towards sex and our own bodies. In  conversation with Birmingham Lit Festival director, Shantel Edwards, this episode continues the  conversation about sex, intersectional feminism and gender started by the authors’ books, Behind Closed  Doors: Sex Education Transformed and Vagina: A Re-education.  

Shantel Edwards 

Welcome to the Birmingham Literature Festival podcast. I'm Shantel Edwards and I'm the Festival Director  and I'm really excited today to welcome writers Lynn Enright and Natalie Fiennes to the podcast, and to join  them in discussion about their books. I'm going to introduce them both and their books to you, and then  we're going to dive into a wonderful chat about their work and all the ways their books are challenging our  ideas about sex, women's bodies, intersectional feminism, and last, but most certainly not least, vaginas.  Our first guest is Lynn Enright and she's a journalist who has written for Vogue, The Irish Times, the  Guardian and BuzzFeed, as well as many other publications where she writes about feminism, current  affairs, women's health, fashion, the arts, politics, and pop culture. The book we're here to talk about today,  Vagina: A Re-education, is her first book, and it provides people with information that's often obscured  about the female body, confronting taboos and the patriarchy in the process. Our second guest is Natalie  Fiennes, a journalist and film-maker who writes for the Guardian and the Independent. She makes  documentaries and has taught sex education and consent classes in schools, universities and youth centres.  Behind Closed Doors: Sex Education Transformed is her first book, and it offers a manifesto for an inclusive  sex education that offers young people an honest insight into sexuality, whilst identifying the varied and  layered inequalities that currently stand in the way of sexual freedom. A very warm welcome to you both.  Thank you for being here. 

Natalie Fiennes 

Thank you for having us.

Lynn Enright 

Thank you. 

Shantel Edwards 

I loved both of your books. I thought they were really compelling reads and I came away from them feeling  like I'd learned a lot. And when I was reading them it really felt like there was real passion and impetus  behind them. And I wanted to start by asking you both – and perhaps we could start with Lynn – about what  had inspired you to write them? 

Lynn Enright 

So I was working at The Pool, which is now defunct but was a website aimed at women. And it was a place  that kind of covered a broad array of topics, and I was Head of News and Content there. So commissioning  stuff about politics and feminism, but also, you know, kind of film or books or, you know, really everything.  But when we did, when we covered subjects about women's bodies, and about kind of taboo subjects like  fertility, infertility, miscarriage, childbirth, post-childbirth, vaginas, all of that kind of stuff, there was just a  real response from the readers. So that got me thinking and, you know, I could sense that and I wanted to  do something with that. And then also around that time #MeToo had happened and the Repeal the Eighth  movement in Ireland was underway – so the push for free, safe legal abortion in Ireland, and we'd never  had legal abortion in Ireland but we were on the cusp of it then when I started to write this book. And so I  got to think about how the basics of biology and the fact that so often just the basics about our bodies are  obscured, whether that's in sex education or even in the way we're spoken to with a sort of woolliness and  a lack of clarity around the way we speak about our own bodies and the knowledge we actually have  available to us. So I got to think how that's connected to then these much wider concepts and problems.  Like, you know, like what we saw with #MeToo, so like sexual assault and sexual abuse, and like the fact  that, you know, abortion wasn't legal in Ireland until two years ago. And I think that that was connected to  our discomfort around biology. So it was kind of bringing those two subjects together was how this book  started. 

Shantel Edwards 

Thank you, I think you can really, you can really feel that in the book as well. As I was reading it I certainly  felt like I could see the intersections of the ways all those things were working together. And the same for  your book as well. Natalie, I thought you did a really good job of showing the ways that women's bodies in  particular are the intersection for a lot of those things. The same question to you really. Was there a  particular moment that led to you writing the book?

Natalie Fiennes 

Yes. So I was also working at a magazine called Consented magazine and we used to kind of publish these  pieces on an array of different topics. But we also used to go into schools and teach classes and lead  workshops. And I, with a kind of a few other people, and we were attached to this kind of activist collective  called Resist and Renew, started teaching consent and sex education wo...

In today’s episode, journalist and author Sam Baker talks to fellow writer Kate Spicer about her latest book The Shift. Join Sam and Kate as they discuss the cultural silence around menopause, the invisibility of women past child-bearing age and the
freedom, power and confidence of life after menopause.

The Birmingham Lit Fest Presents... podcast brings writers and readers together to discuss some of 2020’s best books. Each Thursday across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions
about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. Join us each week for exciting and inspiring conversations with new, and familiar, writers from the Midlands and beyond.

Take a look at the rest of this year's digital programme on our website: https://www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org/.
For more information on Writing West Midlands, visit https://writingwestmidlands.org/

Follow the festival on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @BhamLitFest

Credits

Curator: Shantel Edwards (Festival director)
Guest Curator: Kit de Waal
Production: 11C/ Birmingham Podcast Studios for Writing West Midlands

TRANSCRIPT

BLF Podcast Transcription, Episode 7 – Sam Baker in conversation with Kate Spicer 

Kit de Waal 

Welcome to the Birmingham Lit Fest Presents…podcast series. I’m Kit de Waal and I’ve worked with  the Festival Director, Shantel Edwards, as Guest Curator of this year’s podcast series. Each Thursday  across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful  discussions about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. In today’s episode, journalist and  author Sam Baker talks to fellow writer Kate Spicer about her latest book The Shift. Part memoir and  part feminist manifesto, The Shift redefines the narrative around menopause and makes visible the  lives and experiences of women over 40. In this podcast, Sam and Kate discuss the cultural silence  around menopause, the invisibility of women past child-bearing age and the freedom, power and confidence of life after menopause.  

Kate Spicer 

Hello, and welcome to the Birmingham Literature Festival. My name is Kate Spicer and I'm here with  Sam Baker. Sam started her career in journalism and was the editor of some very significant British  women's magazines including Just 17, Company, Cosmopolitan, Red. She went on to edit an internet  magazine called The Pool, which was multiple award winning and generally recognized as changing  the way women's journalism was done online. She's also written five novels, and now is the author  of The Shift her first nonfiction book and a podcast of the same name. This is an extraordinary book  and I would expect no less from a woman who was once my editor. It is very deep, very wide, it  bears her soul, her guts, and also, I should say, her vagina. 

Sam Baker 

Thanks Kate! 

Kate Spicer 

It’s one of the most extraordinary books I've ever read about the menopause, because it is so  incredibly fearless, and also refuses to get too boring on the technical stuff. Sam, can you start, can  we start with a reading?  

Sam Baker 

Yeah, we can start with a reading and hopefully one that doesn't mention my vagina. I'm just going  to read from the very beginning of the book. 

‘It dawned on me that something wasn't right around the time I was 46. It could have been earlier,  but after a lifetime of gynaecological chaos, I didn't pay much attention when my periods dribbled  more or less to a halt. My confidence crashed. Not ideal when you've just ditched a high-profile job  to start a business that depends, at least in part, on your capacity for self-belief. And now you're  standing in the kitchen howling that you're a failure and resigning was a terrible mistake. Where  once I would have bulldozed straight on, confident on the outside, if not inside, now I simply  couldn't see a way through. On top of that came the depression, which was less a matter of highs  and lows than a case of lows and lowers. I had less than ever to be depressed about I just was. Then  came the sweats. Oh Lord, the sweats. I'm not sure which was worse. The hot flushes during the day  when you could at least feel them roaring in and try to get to the nearest loo to lie down, body  pressed to the cold and inevitably vile tiled floor until they passed or the night sweats. Often, I’d  wake in a puddle, skin-soaked, hair slicked to my body, sheet and duvet drenched. I seriously  worried I’d started wetting the bed. What the hell was going on? Then my good friend the flesh  duvet moved in and decided to stay. Indefinitely. Of course, I had a suspicion, but I couldn't bear to  accept it. I wasn't old enough was I? I was 46 going on, I don't know 30. I looked young for my age  people always said. I felt young, wasn't menopause something that happened to old people? Was I  old? 

Despite the countless blogs and Facebook groups and self-help books, I didn't really know where to  turn. None of my friends would admit to being perimenopausal yet and seeking help on social media  felt like a public admission of aging, which sounds ridiculous now, but then, only a few years ago,  when no one would even whisper the word menopause, it felt like a huge deal. Eventually, unable to  carry on in the body and brain of someone I hardly recognised, I barged into the office of the  gynaecologist who's helped me with my endless problems yelling “help give me all the drugs!” Brushing aside her futile attempts to talk me through a leaflet that explained the link between HRT  and breast cancer, I left triumphant with a prescription and the leaflet. I never did read the leaflet.  Right then I didn't care about the potential risks or side effects. All I cared about was taking a magic  pill to bring me back to me. I took it and lucky for me, it worked. Slowly I started to re-emerge. As  months passed, I began to be able to identify other women with that faintly deranged “what the  fuck is happening to me” look in their eyes, and a tendency to suddenly overheat. It didn't happen  overnight. After all, it's not as if you can go up to complete strangers and say, “oh, I noticed you  were looking a bit hot”, and at work I was surrounded by women who were up to 20 years younger  than me. Their conversation was all about whether they would ever be able to afford to buy a flat and if or when to start trying for a baby. Why would they care about someone so ancient that their  eggs, and plenty of other bits, were drying up? If I'd known then what I know now, I would have approached the whole thing totally differently. I wouldn't have spent precious hours hunting down  other women who looked a bit hot and irritable and kept tugging uncomfortably at their clothes.  Instead, I would have developed a radar for the rare, relaxed older woman you see very occasionally  in the streets, in cafes, at work dos. Rumour has it they're more plentiful in certain parts of America but in the UK, you have to look pretty hard to spot them and, on finding them, I would have begged them to share their wisdom. How did they get there? And what was it like on the other side? How  did they shift ...

In this week’s episode author Kit de Waal talks to fellow writer and novelist Paul McVeigh about Supporting Cast, her first short story collection that focuses on the lives and loves of ordinary people including some familiar characters from her
earlier novels. They talk about writing character driven fiction, amplifying the voices of working class writers and dealing with rejection, alongside 2 readings from the book.

The Birmingham Lit Fest Presents... podcast brings writers and readers together to discuss some of 2020’s best books. Each Thursday across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions
about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. Join us each week for exciting and inspiring conversations with new, and familiar, writers from the Midlands and beyond.

Take a look at the rest of this year's digital programme on our website: https://www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org/.
For more information on Writing West Midlands, visit https://writingwestmidlands.org/

Follow the festival on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @BhamLitFest

Credits

Curator: Shantel Edwards (Festival director)
Guest Curator: Kit de Waal
Production: 11C/ Birmingham Podcast Studios for Writing West Midlands

TRANSCRIPT

BLF 20 Podcast Transcription 6: Kit de Waal and Paul McVeigh
 
Kit de Waal
Welcome to the Birmingham Lit Fest Presents...podcast series. I’m Kit de Waal and I’ve worked with the Festival Director, Shantel Edwards, as Guest Curator of this year’s podcast series. Each Thursday across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. In this week’s episode I talk to fellow writer and novelist Paul McVeigh about Supporting Cast, my first short story collection that focuses on the lives and loves of ordinary people including some familiar characters from my earlier novels. We talk about writing character driven fiction, amplifying the voices of working-class writers and dealing with rejection, alongside 2 readings from the book.

University of Birmingham Sponsor Message
This episode of the Birmingham Lit Fest presents... podcast is brought to you in partnership with the University of Birmingham College of Arts and Law. We explore what it means to be human in historical and cultural contexts, within ethical and legal norms and through languages and communication.

Paul McVeigh
Hello everyone and welcome to the Birmingham Literature Festival. My name's Paul McVeigh and I'm here to interview Kit de Waal, novelist and short story writer, and currently screenwriter as well – and we'll hear more about that later on. Kit was born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the 60s and 70s. Her debut novel, My Name is Leon, was an international bestseller, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, long listed for the Desmond Elliot prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year award for 2017. That was followed by The Trick to Time, which was long listed for the Women's Prize [for Fiction], and her young adult novel, Becoming Dinah, is shortlisted for the Carnegie CLIP Award 2020. Kit has had also huge success with the Common People anthology. But mostly today we're gonna be talking about Kit's short story collection that's a mixture of short fiction and flash fiction, and it's called Supporting Cast. And Kit's actually going to start with a reading from the book. Kit, hello!

Kit de Waal
Hello. It's great to be here in my hometown podcast because it's always great to be at any Birmingham event. The story I'm going to read is from Supporting Cast and it's a short piece of fiction. It's actually flash fiction. And the title of it is ‘Edith Paisley-Jones (Woman in a Flowery Skirt)’, and it's a character from My Name is Leon and she's a passing character, a woman at the allotments and it's set in 1981.
                              1

‘She hung on, love ready, until her hands were weathered and rust-spotted. She stayed hopeful and optimistic until the light went out and the horizon disappeared. Her heels became square and sensible, her coat cut to keep out chills and disappointment. She wore thin lips and crept into loneliness like ivy through a tree.
Then he came along, and eyed her like an unclaimed prize.
She began to disregard her slip and umbrella. She found herself with him on piers, at funfairs, kissing him quick. She began to laugh again and leave windows open, became forgetful and blasé with recycling, a whistler, a lier-in, a gatherer of shells. Raising her head, she always found him there, waiting and dry-footed on the shore.
He took her hand, drew his shape on her life and on her plans. He was reliable and true. Then he became indispensable, necessary and she wondered how she would live without him, and when he spoke of permanence and years to come, she began to suspect his sudden appearance and question her good fortune. When she had been eager and would have been grateful, he was elsewhere, loving someone else. So she told him he came too late.
Now, she was near-sighted and content, she weeded her plot with rough hands, with knuckles too thick for rings. She became busy, practical, grew box hedging down the path and phallic gourds in pots. She cut her own hair, silver, fly-away, untameable. At weekends she studied maps and drove hours to deserted coves and dangerous walks he wouldn't dare. She covered miles of beach in stout shoes and concentration.
He never followed. They never met by chance.’

Paul McVeigh
That was lovely. When I was reading the collection, I often found myself in tears. You're a writer of what I call emotional fiction. When I read your work it just engages with my heart. And I wonder, when you're writing are you aware of that? Is it an intention of yours, and do you feel as emotional as we do when we're reading or listening to you?

Kit de Waal
To be honest I only really write what I can write. I don't, you know, I'm not trying to, to use any sort of devices or anything, I think I'd find it really hard not to write that way. If someone said to me, 'can you write something cold where you don't engage the heart?' I'd find it almost impossible. It's just, literally, you know, it's not like I've got a box of tricks and I can bring them out. I'm just sort of writing who I am, I suppose. Very occasionally, when I'm writing I've got a lump in my throat. I can remember when I was writing a particular scene in My Name is Leon when he meets his mother at a Family Centre after a long time. And when I wrote the end of that chapter, I remember thinking, 'oh my God, this is terrible' and I was genuinely upset. I knew it was a true scene and it had to happen. I certainly do know when I've struck the right tone and when I've got the right note because I'm moved. And I think you have to move yourself just the same way as if you're a comedy writer you need to find your own jokes funny, you know, otherwise, you haven't got a sense of it. So, I think I do know what I'm doing, but I don't know how to not do it, if you see what I mean?

Paul McVeigh
Yes, yes. And it just reminds me that I was reading recently about My Name is Leon and we're going to see it on television. Is it this year or next year?

Kit de Waal
Well, I think it was going to be October before the virus struck. So, I should imagine with a few months out it will probably be January or February [2021] now. But they've gone into pre-prod...

Today’s episode is brought to you by the READ ON project, a scheme supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe fund. The READ ON project gets young people reading, writing, and interviewing authors, both in their own country and across Europe. In this week’s podcast, two of our young presenters, Amy Webb and Tanita Patel, interviewed bestselling author Louise O’Neill about her latest book After the Silence, discussing the cultural preoccupation with true crime and stories about young women, feminism and the urgency of the climate crisis.

The Birmingham Lit Fest Presents... podcast brings writers and readers together to discuss some of 2020’s best books. Each Thursday across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions
about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. Join us each week for exciting and inspiring conversations with new, and familiar, writers from the Midlands and beyond.

Take a look at the rest of this year's digital programme on our website: https://www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org/.
For more information on Writing West Midlands, visit https://writingwestmidlands.org/

Follow the festival on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @BhamLitFest

Credits

Curator: Shantel Edwards (Festival director)
Guest Curator: Kit de Waal
Production: 11C/ Birmingham Podcast Studios for Writing West Midlands

TRANSCRIPT

BLF Podcast Transcription, Episode 5: Louise O’Neill in Conversation with Amy Webb and Tanita Patel 

Kit de Waal
Welcome to the Birmingham Lit Fest Presents...podcast series. I’m Kit de Waal and I’ve worked with the Festival Director, Shantel Edwards, as Guest Curator of this year’s podcast series. Each Thursday across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. Today’s episode is brought to you by the READ ON project, a scheme supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe fund. The READ ON project gets young people reading, writing, and interviewing authors, both in their own country and across Europe. In this week’s podcast, two of our young presenters, Amy Webb and Tanita Patel, interviewed bestselling author Louise O’Neill about her latest book After the Silence, discussing the cultural preoccupation with true crime and stories about young women, feminism and the urgency of the climate crisis.

Amy Webb
Welcome to the Birmingham Literature Festival 2020 and to our podcast with the writer Louise O'Neill. My name is Amy and I'm part of a project called Young Presenters. I'm from the city of Birmingham in England and I'm 16 years old. In September I am due to start at University College Birmingham studying health and social care.

Tanita Patel
My name is Tanita and I am also part of the Young Presenters project. I'm 16 years old from Wolverhampton and about start Sixth Form in September to study psychology, RS and English Literature.

Amy Webb
Over the last three years Young Presenters have trained young people to run events at the Birmingham Literature Festival. The project is part of Read On, a scheme supported by the European Union's Creative Europe fund.

Tanita Patel
This year's Birmingham Literature Festival is being run online. And we are so pleased to be here to interview the writer Louise O'Neill. Louise, welcome to the Birmingham Literature Festival.

Louise O’Neill
Oh, thank you so much for having me.

Amy Webb
Louise, we have quite a few questions for you. But before we start, could you please tell us a bit about yourself and your writing?
   
Louise O’Neill
Yeah, well, I'm from Ireland, I'm from a small town called Clonakilty in West Cork, which is in the south of Ireland. And I have been writing for, I’m trying to think how many years now, I think it's seven years. And so, my first novel was called Only Ever Yours, and that was published in 2014. And that's a dystopian novel, set in a world in which women are no longer able to have daughters. So they can have sons, but their bodies have sort of naturally evolved to reject a female foetus in the womb. So faced with the extinction of the human race, a decision is made to create these schools where girls are bred for their beauty and then trained to be subservient to men. My second novel came out in 2015, and that was called Asking For It. And that was about a young woman called Emma O’Donovan, who is the victim of a brutal sexual assault. My third novel was for adults, so we probably won't be talking about that here, but my fourth book was a feminist retelling of the Little Mermaid for young adults, which was called The Surface Breaks. And, actually, my fifth novel is due to be published next week.

Tanita Patel
Thanks Louise, that's really interesting. However, our first question isn't actually about your writing, we would both like to know, what have you been up to in lockdown?

Louise O’Neill
Oh, God! Um, that is a very good question. And I really wish that I could tell you that I, you know, was emerging from lockdown clutching a piece of art in my hands. But I am not. I think when Taylor Swift came and said that she had written and recorded an album during lockdown, I felt immensely guilty. And just a great deal of shame about my lack of productivity. But I think to be honest, when it was called, when everything happened at the beginning, I was really just scrambling. I felt incredibly
anxious, I think it was difficult not to pick up on the anxiety and the fear. That was just so like the atmosphere was thick with it really. So, for the first month, I think I just felt completely paralyzed. I was unable to, to write I was unable to read, I couldn't even watch Netflix. So, I think it took me a little bit of time to come out of that fog in a way. And just try and adjust and try and kind of, and I hate using the term the new normal, but I suppose trying to adjust to this new way of living and figure out a way of doing it that felt, I don't know, comfortable I suppose, for me. So that's kind of been what I've been doing with my lockdown is just trying to adjust to the madness.

Amy Webb
Definitely. I agree with you there, a lot of people have struggled in similar ways and we've got to try and accept the new normal. As you mentioned earlier, you have a new book just published called After the Silence. Could you please introduce the book for people who have not read it?

Louise O’Neill
Yeah, of course. Well, it's going to be published on September 3, so it's only a week out. And it is set on an island off the coast of West Cork called Inisrun. And an incredibly glamorous wealthy family called the Kinsellas have set up, a world-renowned artist retreat centre on the island. And the youngest Kinsella son Henry has married a local woman called Keelin. And it's at Keelin’s 36th birthday party that this violent storm engulfs the island, you know, the power goes out and it's completely cut off from the mainland. And the next morning, the body of a young girl is found. No one can get on the island. No one can get off the island. So it has to have been someone on Inisrun who did this. And then 10 years later, the murder of the beautiful Nessa Crowley still haunts the Irish people. And so, a team of documentary makers have arrived on to the island to find out exactly what happened on Inisrun that night. So that's it, After the Silence in a little nutshell.

Tanita Patel
Thank you for that great explanation. Whilst reading it, I thought it was really powerful book. Are there any experiences or stories that have influence...

In this week’s episode we welcome Candice Brathwaite, author of the bestselling book, I Am Not Your Baby Mother. In conversation with fellow bestselling author Dorothy Koomson, they discuss the urgent need to redefine motherhood, the silencing of black women’s pain and the experience of publishing a book in the midst of a global pandemic and the resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests across the world.

The Birmingham Lit Fest Presents... podcast brings writers and readers together to discuss some of 2020’s best books. Each Thursday across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions
about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. Join us each week for exciting and inspiring conversations with new, and familiar, writers from the Midlands and beyond.

Take a look at the rest of this year's digital programme on our website: https://www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org/.
For more information on Writing West Midlands, visit https://writingwestmidlands.org/

Follow the festival on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @BhamLitFest

Credits

Curator: Shantel Edwards (Festival director)
Guest Curator: Kit de Waal
Production: 11C/ Birmingham Podcast Studios for Writing West Midlands

TRANSCRIPT

BLF Podcast Transcription, Episode 4: Candice Braithwaite in conversation with Dorothy Koomson 

Kit de Waal
Welcome to the Birmingham Lit Fest Presents...podcast series. I’m Kit de Waal and I’ve worked with the 

Festival Director, Shantel Edwards, as Guest Curator of this year’s podcast series. Each Thursday across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. In this week’s episode we welcome Candice Brathwaite, author of the bestselling book, I Am Not Your Baby Mother, in conversation with fellow bestselling author Dorothy Koomson. Candice’s book, part memoir and part social commentary, offers a brilliantly observed guide to life as a black mother in the UK and an urgent call to recognise the diversity of motherhood. Join them as they discuss redefining motherhood, the silencing of black women’s pain and the experience of publishing a book in the midst of a global pandemic and the resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests across the world. 

Dorothy Koomson
Hello, my name's Dorothy Koomson and today I am talking to the wonderful Candice Brathwaite – I have to say that properly. And I actually listened to her book rather than reading it because I wanted to get a sense of who Candice is. And so I know how to say her name properly. So yeah, Candice Brathwaite is something of a powerhouse in the social media world and in, naturally, the real world. She has helped to transform the lives of millions, and I do say millions because she has touched so many people: the lives of millions of mothers everywhere by showing them that mothers don't all look one way and they don't all have to have shiny hair and a certain amount of money in the bank to be good mothers who love and care about their children. And she's a top-tier influencer. And it was from her experiences on the differing ways of being a mother that led her to found Make Motherhood Diverse, an online initiative that Candice describes as aiming to encourage a more accurately representative and diverse depiction of motherhood in the media. Basically, to show us all that all mothers don't look the same, they don't have the same experiences and we are all different but all good parents. 

Candice has two children, Esmé-Olivia, and Richard Junior known as RJ, and she lives with her husband Bodé in Milton Keynes. Her book, I Am Not Your Baby Mother, published earlier this year, really lifted the lid off what it means to be a black mother in our modern world. And she describes her experiences and the experience of so many other black women in all its dangerous, humorous, scandalous, humbling, empowering and beautiful glory. Candice is talking to me today about her book, life and of course, ice cream. And I say ice cream because my first question to you, Candice, is going to be, What's your favourite flavour of ice cream? 

Candice Brathwaite 
Um, Cookie Dough. 

Dorothy Koomson 
Cookie Dough? 

Candice Brathwaite
Yeah, specifically a bit of Ben and Jerry's. 

Dorothy Koomson 
Ben and Jerry's. 

Candice Brathwaite
I don't wanna advertise to them but ... Ben and Jerry's Cookie Dough. It's up there. It is up there. 

Dorothy Koomson
You see, I can't eat that, unfortunately, because I'm gluten free, and so I'm gutted when I see other people eating those things. It's just – oh, okay. Well, now I know that, see, we've started on a good footing. You've got a good flavour of ice cream up there. So, my second important question to you was going to be, What's your favourite flavour of baby food? 

Candice Brathwaite
Oh, baby food? Oh, gosh! 

Dorothy Koomson
I bet no one's ever asked you that before. 

Candice Brathwaite
I'm a bit stuck. Yes, never! I'm like, you know, anything appley if that makes sense like. And this is the thing: so you know my background is Caribbean and my husband's background is Nigerian so even like the idea of baby food that comes in jars – that's so foreign to us. 

Dorothy Koomson 
I know. 

Candice Brathwaite
You just like, yeah, you just mash down what you're eating and give it to the baby. 

Dorothy Koomson
Yes, I know. That was why I wanted to double-check. You see, I wanted to double-check on you. I was checking up on you in a different way, see. 

[Laughter.] 

Dorothy Koomson
So I should follow that up by asking is it plantain or jollof. Which is your favourite out of those two? 

Candice Brathwaite
Oh, plantain! It's not even up for a competition with me. 

Dorothy Koomson
Okay, all right. So I’m gonna be serious now, yeah. So how is your lockdown been? Because I know it's, we're coming out of it apparently. I'm not, I'm still distancing and stuff. But how's it been for you? 

Candice Brathwaite
Do you know what? Lockdown was, was really difficult in, in, in a lot of ways. You've got, I've got two underage kids at home. It's hard to explain, especially to a two-year old, why he can't go to his childminder. And, you know, you're spending all of this extra time with a family you really do love but you need some space. And then it was, there was another layer of difficulty. My first book was published during lockdown, which I was really, really nervous about because I'm a debut author anyway. I'm gonna be nervous: I don't know how this works. And you could have millions of followers on social media. If you want to be taken seriously as a writer there is, I had an idea in my head about getting to meet my readers, about being on a physical book tour. And to see dates just get erased from my diary, I was like, oh, okay. I was even saying to the publishing house, like, I think we should delay this and luckily, they, you know, they had faith that it would be okay. But it's been really, really hard because – you would know better than me – writing a book is one thing, promoting it is a different beast. 

Dorothy Koomson 
It is. 

 <...

In this week’s episode, artist and cultural critic Gaylene Gould interviews debut author Paul Mendez about his novel Rainbow Milk. Join Paul and Gaylene for a fascinating discussion about the rich history of black British writing, representing

the Black Country accent on the page and the intersections of identity, alongside a wonderful reading from the novel.

The Birmingham Lit Fest Presents... podcast brings writers and readers together to discuss some of 2020’s best books. Each Thursday across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions
about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. Join us each week for exciting and inspiring conversations with new, and familiar, writers from the Midlands and beyond.

Take a look at the rest of this year's digital programme on our website: https://www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org/.
For more information on Writing West Midlands, visit https://writingwestmidlands.org/

Follow the festival on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @BhamLitFest

Credits

Curator: Shantel Edwards (Festival director)
Guest Curator: Kit de Waal
Production: 11C/ Birmingham Podcast Studios for Writing West Midlands

TRANSCRIPT

Kit de Waal 

Welcome to the Birmingham Lit Fest Presents…podcast series. I’m Kit de Waal and I’ve worked with  the Festival Director, Shantel Edwards, as Guest Curator of this year’s podcast series. Each Thursday  across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful  discussions about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. In this week’s episode, artist and  cultural critic Gaylene Gould interviews debut author Paul Mendez about his novel Rainbow Milk, a  coming of age story that starts in the Midlands, via Jamaica, and follows ex-communicated Jehovah’s  Witness Jesse McCarthy as he grapples with racism, the legacies of the Windrush and his sexuality.  Join Paul and Gaylene for a fascinating discussion about the rich history of Black British writing,  representing the Black Country accent on the page and the intersections of identity, alongside a  wonderful reading from the novel.  

Gaylene Gould 

Welcome to Birmingham Literature Festival. I'm reviewer Gaylene Gould here with debut novelist  Paul Mendez to talk about his book, Rainbow Milk, which made this year's Observer top 10 debut  list. Hi, Paul. 

Paul Mendez 

Hello Gaylene, how are you? 

Gaylene Gould 

Good, thank you. Good, good. Yeah, great to actually kind of meet you virtually. I reviewed this book  for Front Row, and I was saying how like, that can be quite onerous, you know, because you have to  read a whole book and then hopefully like it and I really loved it. So, it's really wonderful to get to  meet you. So, Rainbow Milk, it's a semi-autobiographical novel, following the journey of a character  called Jesse McCarthy, who's a 19-year-old, de-fellowshipped Jehovah's Witness from West  Bromwich. And we follow him as he moves to London and explores his sexuality through  prostitution, amongst other things and through to becoming a burgeoning writer. So, there's real  shades of James Baldwin here, and Giovanni's Room is indeed referenced in the novel. So, tell us a  bit how this story grew in you.  

Paul Mendez 

Well I have a different answer now to what I would have said in answer or in response a couple of  weeks ago, even because I've just re-read Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone, which was Baldwin's fourth novel, published in 1968, just after the start of his political downturn, his unjust critical downturn as far as I'm concerned, because I think his later novels are pretty much his best work. But I read Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone when I was 20 years old. My trajectory was  very different from Jesse, Jesse was disfellowshipped at 19 and then move straight to London,  whereas I was disfellowshipped at 17. And when I was 19, moved to Kent to study an engineering  degree at West Kent College, a partner College of Greenwich University. I didn't stay on the degree  course for very long, I think I quit after about nine months. But in the summer of 2002, I was living  with some fellow students or photography students, actually not engineering students. And it was  sort of my first time living away from home, it was the first time living with creative people and one  of them pushed Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone into my hand and it was the first time I've  ever read a book by a black author. It was the first time I'd ever read a book by a black queer author,  focalising a black queer protagonist. And it had a huge impact on me, but one, which I sort of put  down, put to the side and forgot about, but it's only when reading it back now, 18 years later, that I  realized just how much of an impact that book had on me in terms of my life choices, in terms of you  know, I studied acting very much like the protagonist, Leo Proudhammer, he studied acting with a  method school and becomes a successful Off Broadway actor in New York. I became a waiter and  sort of, you know, expanded my sort of social kind of contacts, I suppose, and social environment  through working in restaurants, and samplings and cuisines and just meeting you know, a whole cast  of different people, and of course, explored my sexuality. So, Leo Proudhammer, the protagonist of  Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone is bisexual, or identifies as bisexual and I came out as  bisexual I think a year after reading, Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone. And so even just in  terms of the subject’s dealt with, but also in terms of the way the book is written, the way Rainbow  Milk is written, the different sort of devices I use in telling the story, so much of it reflects back to  that book. So I think, it just goes to prove how important books are, and reading is, to a formative  mind. As I said, I put that book down, forgot about it and some 5 - 10 years later started reading  other Baldwin novels, such as Giovanni's Room and Another Country, which I've referenced briefly in  Rainbow Milk, but I think the most important of his books to me was Tell Me How Long the Train’s  Been Gone. 

Gaylene Gould 

So that's a great answer. And also, like you're saying, it really shows how novels and books work, that they have a slow, transformative process on you, you know, and you really kind of get a sense  of that in this novel, that there is something that is kind of, there is a journey, there's a journey  that's taken not just through the character, but that you take us on, getting us to sample our own journeys, I guess. So, the book spans miles and time so it's predominantly set this century, in the  2000s, but it begins in the last, particularly the 1950s with the arrival of Jesse's ancestor, Norman  Alonzo and his wife Claudette from Jamaica, arriving in Bilston, in the West Midlands. So why was it  important for you for the book to start there? 

Paul Mendez 

So what we think of as the Windrush generation now they're dying off, sadly, you know, the  Windrush itself, that ...

This week's episode brings Liz Berry, Romalyn Ante and Rupinder Kaur together, three powerhouse poets from the Midlands.
Featuring a series of wonderful readings of the poems from their collections Rooh and Antiemetic for Homesickness, Rupinder and Romalyn join Liz for a discussion of their work, the importance of poetry during a pandemic and the power of poetry to connect us.

The Birmingham Lit Fest Presents... podcast brings writers and readers together to discuss some of 2020’s best books. Each Thursday across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions
about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. Join us each week for exciting and inspiring conversations with new, and familiar, writers from the Midlands and beyond.

Take a look at the rest of this year's digital programme on our website: https://www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org/.
For more information on Writing West Midlands, visit https://writingwestmidlands.org/

Follow the festival on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @BhamLitFest

Credits

Curator: Shantel Edwards (Festival director)
Guest Curator: Kit de Waal
Production: 11C/ Birmingham Podcast Studios for Writing West Midlands

TRANSCRIPT

Kit de Waal 

I’m Kit de Waal, writer and Guest Curator of this year’s Birmingham Lit Fest Presents…podcast. Today’s  episode brings Liz Berry, Romalyn Ante and Rupinder Kaur together, three powerhouse poets from the  Midlands. Featuring a series of wonderful readings of the poems from their collections Rooh and Antiemetic  for Homesickness, Rupinder and Romalyn join Liz for a discussion of their work, the importance of poetry  during a pandemic and the power of poetry to connect us.  

Sponsor message 

This episode of the Birmingham Lit Fest Presents… podcast is brought to you in partnership with the  University of Wolverhampton. Visit their website at www.wlv.ac.uk for information on January 2021  enrolment. 

Liz Berry 

Hello, everyone, and thank you so much for joining us across the miles for this very special Birmingham  Literature Festival podcast. I'm Liz Berry, a poet and patron of writing West Midlands and I'm delighted to be  introducing you to two of the brightest rising stars on the poetry scene: Rupinder Kaur and Romalyn Ante.  These two wonderful Midlands poets bring us what's best and most exciting about contemporary poetry – true heart and deep feeling; a meeting of gorgeous, lyrical languages; and an engagement with the stories  and experiences which transform us. I'm going to introduce both the poets to you and then we'll hear their  poems and chat about their work and the importance of poetry in difficult times.  

My first guest, Romalyn Ante, is a nurse, award-winning poet and editor. She was born in San Sebastian in  the Philippines, where she lived until she migrated to the UK at 16. Romalyn's poems have won many  awards, including the prestigious Poetry London Prize and the Manchester Poetry Prize. Romalyn was the  co-founding editor of Harana Poetry journal, a journal for poets who write with English as a second or  parallel language. This summer Romalyn published her first full collection with Chatto [an imprint of  Penguin], Antiemetic for Homesickness, and it's already received rave reviews and acclaim, being named an  Observer Poetry book of the month.  

My second guest is the wonderful Rupinder Kaur. Rupinder is a Birmingham Punjabi poet, performer,  workshop facilitator and creative curator. Her debut poetry book, Rooh (2018) was published by Verve  Poetry Press. She's been awarded a DYCP grant from the Arts Council to work on a next poetry collection.  And is currently a BBC New Creative developing an audio piece with Rural Media. 

Rupinder and Romalyn, welcome! Thank you both for joining me. I wish we could all be together having a cup of tea and chatting about your poems in front of an audience. But as this has been a really different  kind of year, we're just going to imagine instead. We're going to pour our virtual tea, get comfy on our virtual sofa. And Romalyn. I'd love you to start us off by reading a poem, please. 

Romalyn Ante 

Thank you. Thanks so much, Liz, and thank you for that wonderful introduction. The first poem that I'm  going to read is called Names. And it has an epigraph which I will read before I read the poem. 

In the Philippines I grew up with an absentee mother. So my mother worked abroad as a nurse in order to  provide a better chance in life for us. But that experience was not unique to me. So in 2018 nine million  children in the Philippines were left behind by their parents. And I guess this first poem attempts to explore  what it means to be exiled through employment, not only through physically but also emotionally, and what  it means to find a sense of belonging and a sense of knowing in the names that are given to us.  

Names 

‘We are nameless, and all names are ours’ 

EMMANUEL LACABA 

My mother’s name is Rosana, but when she left, 

I had other mothers. Rowena, Jimboy, Alma. 

I was named after 

the first syllables of my parents; 

I will always have them with me. 

My mother says not all names have meaning – 

Riverside. Manila. London. Kurba. 

And someday I will forget 

all the commands I did not heed – 

like the time I did not spin the plate clockwise 

before my father left for work 

even if it would deliver him from accidents.

Not all destinations are found 

in the junctions of your palm lines. 

Say better life, say better life. 

And God knows I am repenting. 

Say airbus-something, say one-way ticket, keep following the sunset. Clouds are the closest things to my mother. 

Say United Kingdom, say the queen, NHS. Does winter always mean – ? 

Listen – can you hear it? The loneliness of stretchers along A&E corridors. 

And the strongest part of me 

is the scar I hide underneath my fringe. 

My mother 

hides in the staff toilet 

to make long-distance calls 

Someday I will realise 

the woman lonely in her mansion 

is not my mother  

but a future version of myself. 

I will chop bitter gourds 

on the galaxy-glimmer 

of her worktop. 

Shall we shorten your name on your name tag so it’s easier to remember? Say Yes please, Sister. 

Say Please, Sister, can I take this call?

Say Arnold, Marcus, Harold. Say septicaemia, alcohol poisoning, hernia. 

Say Jason, Darius, Vernon. Say cancer, myocardial infarction, query schizophrenia.  

Hides in the toilet. 

And I have the first syllables 

of my parents' names,&...

This week’s episode brings together 2 of the UK’s most established broadcasters and journalists, Stuart Maconie and Pete
Paphides to discuss their latest books, The Nanny State Made Me and Broken Greek. In conversation with writer and poet Jo Bell, they discuss the personal and cultural importance of music, their deep connection to the Midlands and what it is like to have a life so different to that of your parents.

The Birmingham Lit Fest Presents... podcast brings writers and readers together to discuss some of 2020’s best books. Each Thursday across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions
about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. Join us each week for exciting and inspiring conversations with new, and familiar, writers from the Midlands and beyond.

Take a look at the rest of this year's digital programme on our website: https://www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org/.
For more information on Writing West Midlands, visit https://writingwestmidlands.org/

Follow the festival on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @BhamLitFest

Credits

Curator: Shantel Edwards (Festival director)
Guest Curator: Kit de Waal
Production: 11C/ Birmingham Podcast Studios for Writing West Midlands

TRANSCRIPT

Birmingham Lit Fest presents…podcast
Episode 1: Stuart Maconie and Pete Paphides
Kit de Waal
Welcome to episode 1 of the Birmingham Lit Fest presents…podcast. I’m Kit de Waal, writer and Guest
Curator of this year’s podcast. This week’s episode brings together in conversation 2 of the UK’s most
established broadcasters and journalists, Stuart Maconie and Pete Paphides to discuss their latest books,
The Nanny State Made Me and Broken Greek. In conversation with writer and poet Jo Bell, they discuss the
personal and cultural importance of music, their deep connection to the Midlands, redefining our
understanding of the ‘Nanny State’ and what it is to have a life so different to that of your parents.

Shantel Edwards
This episode of the Birmingham Lit Fest presents… podcast is brought to you in partnership with Dains
Accounting. Visit their website for more information about their services at www.dains.com.

Jo Bell
Hello, and welcome to Birmingham Literature Festival. You'll be used to recordings by now from all kinds of
different places, so if you hear the slight creaking of timbers, that's because my part of this podcast is being
recorded on a boat. I'm Jo Bell, I'm a poet who has often been a guest of this festival. And today I'm
speaking to two men whose recent books have a lot in common. Pete Paphides' Broken Greek and Stuart
Maconie's The Nanny State Made Me are both funny, they're thoughtful, they're what you might call lyric
histories telling the story of a personal life and looking at a larger world through the rear-view mirror.
Stuart Maconie's book looks at the impact of the welfare state through its framing of his own life. And Pete
Paphides shows us what it was like to grow up in Birmingham during the 70s and 80s as a secondgeneration Greek through the records that saw him through childhood and adolescence. So hello, both
where are you today? Stuart, where are you?

Stuart Maconie
Hi, Jo. I'm in a almost completely deserted BBC MediaCity studio. I've been incredibly the … we were
designated my show and Lauren Laverne's show on [Radio] 6 Music were designated 'key workers' at the
beginning of this, at the beginning of this crisis. And so I've been working, I've been coming here every
weekend and although there's been a slight increase in busyness, pretty much still … It's slightly weird. So
I'm in a deserted studio in Salford at the moment.

Jo Bell
Wow, wow! Thanks. Where are you Pete?

Pete Paphides
I'm – slightly less romantically – I'm in the shed at the bottom of the garden. I've sort of commandeered,
which is my daughter's office usually, but I've, I've ousted her. And so me and the dog are just sitting here.
But I do like … Stuart situation sounds quite romantic. I quite like being in radio studios when they're mostly
empty. They have, there's a certain kind of romance about it, which I dare say, probably wore off quite a
long time ago.

Stuart Maconie
No, it is. I do … You're right, you're absolutely right. There is a strange kind of feeling. It's like radio studios
in the middle of the night, people who do those kind of shows where you go, “Hi, it's coming up to twenty
to 4 a.m.” you know, that kind of thing. It's, it is quite romantic. Yeah, but, and I can see Winter Hill from
my window. So it's all quite nice,

Jo Bell
Fantastic. Ian Macmillan told me once that he had been at Radio 4 when the shipping forecast was on and
how he imagined that the whole station was just switched off like a light switch at the end, and he said,
“And it was just like that; it was just like that – they finished the shipping forecast and and then they turned
it off Radio 4 went to bed”.

Stuart Maconie
My favourite entry in the BBC Duty log, which used to be … it's probably all online now. It used to be when
people called up with complaints and stuff, they used to put it in what was called the Duty log. My favourite
complaint was, “Shipping forecast too fast”.

Jo Bell
It's important. I mean, you are, you're all doing important work for the nation. And no one is perhaps more
important than they should be focused, especially to those of us who have no real idea what it means. So
we're here today to celebrate your two books, which I've re-read and enjoyed, and I've listened to Pete's as
well as the Book of the Week on Radio 4. And it strikes me how much they've got in common and, of
course, how separate they are. So what I'd like to do is to hear an extract first from Stuart's book, and a
couple of questions for Stuart, and then we'll repeat that process with Pete, and then we'll bring you both
into a conversation together.

So I'm going to introduce Stuart first. For those of you who don't know him, which can't be many of you,
Stuart Maconie is a music journalist, a broadcaster, and author of broad-ranging social histories, which
often start from pop culture but they go much deeper; they go much wider. And in the words of the Daily
Mail – Stuart Maconie, do you want to hear this, Stuart, what the Daily Mail said about you–

Stuart Maconie
Yes, please. What did they say?

Jo Bell
They said you are “a lefty – but he's not one of those hectoring ideologues who stands astride social media
bellowing at people”. So Stuart, could you please bellow or otherwise a few words from your book, The
Nanny State Made Me?

Stuart Maconie
Okay, this is from the very short – this is the opening page or two – it's from the very short prologue, that
sort of scene setting.
“London's skyline bristles with towers old and new, bloody and sleek, monuments to kings and to
commerce, from the giants of the City's swampy money jungle, to the high-rise canyons of Camden, visitor
and native steers and orients by them, lifting your eyes from your book or your phone or your feet as the
train exhales into Euston as the bus crests Muswell Hill, as you jostle through the West End. Whenever I
pace the narrow lanes of Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, I look up, fly favourite, a Grade II-listed building, more
human and generous than the monstrosities of Canary Wharf. It's had many names, and many lovers. It
looms over works by ...

Author and guest curator Kit de Waal introduces Birmingham Litfest presents... The very first Birmingham Literature Festival podcast.

The Birmingham Literature Festival podcast brings writers and readers together to discuss some of 2020’s best books. Each Thursday across the next few months we’ll be releasing new episodes of the podcast, including wonderful discussions
about writing, poetry, big ideas and social issues. Join us each week for exciting and inspiring conversations with new, and familiar, writers from the Midlands and beyond.

Take a look at the rest of this year's digital programme on our website: https://www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org/.
For more information on Writing West Midlands, visit https://writingwestmidlands.org/

Follow the festival on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @BhamLitFest

Credits

Curator: Shantel Edwards (Festival director)
Guest Curator: Kit de Waal
Production: 11C/ Birmingham Podcast Studios for Writing West Midlands